Frequency (The Frenzy Series Book 3) Read Online Free

her shoulder. Why didn’t they just cut it off? Suppressing a shudder, I took the rest of her in. Her thin body swam in a dingy white t-shirt, four sizes too big. Her jeans were torn, and any exposed skin was mottled or scabbed. There wasn’t much on her that wasn’t scraped or bruised, from the look of it. Visibly shaking from her knees to her lips, her eyes held the same stubbornness as her sister. That was where the resemblance between the two young women ended.
    But something was off. A single tear slid from her eye, crystal clear. It splashed onto her arm, soaking into her scaled skin like rain on a serpent’s back. Why the hell was she crying?
    “Can he hear me?” I asked, trying not to move my lips.
    She shook her head once.
    “Did he send you to fight me?”
    She gritted her teeth.
    “Alone?”
    Blinking up at the sky, liquid frustration fell down her soot-covered cheek.
    “Why would he do that?”
    She opened her mouth to try to speak and a made a tiny screech. Her mouth pinched closed.
    “You want to come with me?” I whispered.
    She looked to the building behind her, full of crumbling red bricks, and a shadow moved inside the third-floor window.
    “Who’s that? Is that him?”
    She shook her head and more tears fell. Lady tears tore me up. Always had. Mercedes’ weren’t as terrible as Porschia’s, but damn. “No? Then who?”
    Her lips moved, silently forming the word Saul .
    Saul. Great. “Is he alone?”
    She shook her head ever so slightly.
    “Damn. Look,” I whispered. “I’m going to come at you. Fight, but come with me, okay?” I took a step forward and then sprang at her lightning fast. She fought, clawing at me for all she was worth, even getting a few chunks of skin under her nails. Damn it! These feline sisters. Once I felt we had put on a good enough show, I picked her up and carried her off toward the wall. When I was sure we weren’t being followed – not that the rotters could run, anyway – I sat Mercedes down.
    “Do you think we fooled them?”
    She shrugged through her labored breaths.
    “Did we need to fool them, Mercedes?” She pointed toward the spine of metal rungs on the concrete wall in front of us. I didn’t miss the way she looked behind her like everything was about to go to shit at any moment. I half expected it to. The merry band of rotters had been prepared for the attack in the forest, so why weren’t they defending their own nest now? Why weren’t they defending Mercedes? And why in the hell was I taking her into Blackwater?
    “Climb onto my back and hold on tight.”
    Mercedes did as she was told, almost too well. “Not that tight,” I eked out. She loosened her elbows around my neck. “Just hold on.”
    What the hell was I doing? If she thought she would feast on anyone there, she had another thing coming. I scaled the wall and eased her down the other side. A jump might have split her bones. Her teeth chattered in my ear as I stepped foot onto the soil again. The sun was still up, even if only barely.
    Roman was in front of us in an instant, teeth bared. “Are you insane? Bringing her in here? I told you to get information, not capture Porschia’s Infected sister and bring her into the Colony!” he spat.
    “She has information. Anyway, something weird is going on with the rotters. They pretty much sent her to die. Why would they want Mercedes dead?” I jutted my chin at Mercedes. “Didn’t she attack for them? Kill for them?”
    Mercedes bit her lip until I smelled blood, which wasn’t a tempting smell at all; tar-like and putrid. “Where’s your mother? Why didn’t they send Saul? He’s stronger than you are. He’s freshly Infected, right?”
    She clamped her teeth together.
    Roman growled. “Take her to the cell, but take her the long way around. Avoid the colonists if you can, though most are inside by now. There’s a storm coming. It’s going to be bad, but probably the last one of the winter season.”
    To my right, an oak